Before the Last Raindrop
by Summerflower54xx
Summary: Iruka finds himself faced with an unnatural amount of worry as group seven leaves for yet another A-classed mission. Kakashi makes a solemn promise that they will be back before the rain stops falling down and Iruka promises himself that when it does he will come clean to the silver haired ninja about how he really feels for him.


The grey clouds hung heavy in the skies, just waiting for the right moment to open up and drown the village below in water. And the forest that surrounded the legendary ninja town were coloured in the most beautiful shades of red and yellow. And the sun was just waiting behind the clouds to cut the raindrops with its light and create rainbows.

The population of the Village hidden in the leaves were doing their everyday chores as one would expect them to do on a normal Thursday. But they kept a suspicious eye on the skies. Readying themselves for the rain to come.

Even though most people wanted to stay inside as much as possible Iruka couldn't wait to get out. He was sitting by his desk in the classroom with his head resting in his palm and his gaze turned towards the slightly chaotic city that was his home.

The room was quiet except for the scribbling sound of the students' pencils against their papers. Now and then you could hear one of them sneeze or clear their throats. Sure, he did hear some of them whisper the right answers to each other now and then and usually Iruka would have reacted. He would have yelled at them and put F on the tests of the ones involved. But today he just couldn't bring himself to care. Because his thoughts were turned somewhere else completely. Group seven had been assigned a new A-ranked mission and the pre-genin teacher couldn't help but be worried. Sure, he knew that Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura could handle themselves and he knew that they weren't his students anymore. He also knew very well about how good of a ninja their group leader Kakashi was but it didn't matter. Iruka was still worried to his bones. And it didn't matter how many times Kakashi told him that the three kids no longer were Iruka's students, the teacher would still worry about them, they were after all his friends.

The weirdest thing was the fact that he always worried about Kakashi as well. Which he knew for sure was stupid. There simply wasn't any risk that the elite ninja would die in one of these missions. He was one of the best jonins out there and it would take an extremely powerful enemy to bring him down. Sure, if any harm would threaten the three kids then Kakashi would gladly sacrifice his life for them but Iruka was certain that the ex ANBU would be able to draw off any attack anyway. But he still worried for his sake. He couldn't exactly assert that he'd spoken a lot with the silver-haired ninja (Kakashi wasn't exactly one to speak overall) but Iruka still felt that they were close enough for him to call them friends. And not only that, for some reason Iruka felt implied to look after Kakashi, he knew it was stupid, why would such a weak chunin as himself protect a strong jounin as Kakashi. It was pathetic. But Iruka couldn't help it. He had a weak spot for the odd ninja and every time he saw him he seemed to melt a little inside. Iruka guessed it had to do with their similar uprising. They both grew up far too fast and into a life of loneliness, he guessed that was the same reason for why he liked Naruto so much as well.

He had been so occupied with his thoughts that he didn't notice how the pupils one by one had stopped writing. He was although interrupted by someone clearing his throat right in front of him. Iruka turned his glance from the window towards the small child standing on the other side of the desk. The kid was so small that only the tips of his black hair was visible over the top of the table.

Iruka stretched a bit so that he could see Konohamaru's face that was staring back at him with a rather amused look on in his round features.

"Are you day dreaming about your girlfriend, Sensei?" the grandson of the third Hokage said and smiled a bit more. His words were followed by a hail of laughter from the other pre-genins in the room.

Iruka felt his neck turning red at the boy's words. Girlfriend was after all not an appropriate word to describe his relation to Kakashi.

"Konohamaru, I am your sensei, you should really show me some more respect," he yelled rather half hearted. In normal circumstances he would have thrown one of his tantrums at the students but he really didn't have the energy for it.

"Sure thing, Sensei. The lesson ended two minutes ago,"Konohamaru said with a rather unimpressed look on his face.

Iruka stared dumbfounded at the child before he turned his gaze towards the clock to check for himself and yes, it was correct. He'd managed to daydream his way through the end of the lesson.

"Oh," he just managed to mutter. "Class is dismissed," he added as he himself started to pack up his things. He barely had time to close his book before all the students had left the room.

Iruka threw a last glance out the window where the first droplets of rain had started to fall down from the sky. As he pulled on his jacket he whispered a silent hope to himself that he would manage to catch group seven before they left.


End file.
